Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/207

Rh Bishop, "what did you see? " "Why, my Lord," replied the Dean, "I saw three men in green, and your Lordship will find it very hard to put those men down."

This proved to be very true. The Movement spread, and now it has too strong a hold upon thinking people, and on their affections, to be very easily destroyed. In our time we do not hear of riots and opposition for such trivial matters as called them forth in the infancy of the Movement.

Hand in hand with this desire for more reverent services in Church there went a desire for Church restoration. The fabric of our Churches had often been allowed to fall into a state of decay. One half of the wealth of the Churches was hidden. Beautiful frescoes had been covered over by the successive layers of the washers' brush and the plasterers' trowels. Valuable pictures were discovered on the walls. Brasses were repolished, and shone on the people's faces once more to tell them that they could read there the history of their parishes.

With this revival of interest in ecclesiastical building there came into existence in 1838 the Architectural Society, which was founded at Oxford for the improvement of Church buildings. Its object was to urge that new-built Churches should be erected with some idea stamped on them of the purpose for which they were erected. It kept the subject of Church building before the people's mind. The Church which Newman erected at Littlemore, and the new Church built by Hook at Leeds, show the spirit of the Society.

In 1846 the Ecclesiological Society was organised, which grew out of the Cambridge Campden Society. The object of this was to promote Christian art in Churches. It dealt